A team of creationists wank around in Galapagos

200 YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF CHARLES DARWINAND 150 YEARS AFTER "ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"A TEAM WILL TRAVEL BACK IN TIMETO PROVE HIM WRONG

"If the Earth was millions of years old as the evolutionist say, life would be impossible."

Why?

"I think the observations we make are consistent with the idea that the Earth was created not very long ago."

And I think you didn't look closely enough.

"There is no hope in evolution. Evolution is a defeatist, scientifically unsupportable philosophy, which is fundamentally at war with God."

Evolutionary theory is a scientific theory, not a philosophy. It explains natural phenomena, and is not expected to bring hope (and yet I am hopeful). There is a plethora of support for evolution. Yes, evolution is fundamentally at war with a literal reading of the Bible (and a literal reading of the Bible is inconsistent with itself).

(Face to face with a giant tortoise) "Just stunning creatures that God has created."

Or not.

"Evolution is all about the origin of new species. But in this case, those that we thought were different species, are really the same species. It's the opposite of evolution."

Evolution is in part about the origin of species. Galapagos species have sister species in other places, but the crucial observation is that they are morphological distinct (what we choose to call different species is irrelevant). WTF does "the opposite" of evolution even mean?

"What evolution does, it forces people to believe in evolution. It forces you not to believe in the Bible."

It's a a theory!!! It doesn't force anyone to do anything. You are forcing people to choose between science and the Bible.

"Evolution is survival of the fittest. In Christianity, the most fit of all, Jesus Christ, died for the unfit. That's you and me. That's the way God thinks."

This has got to be the best of all. I have rarely heard such nonsense even on their side of the fence. It is clear as day that this man doesn't understand the very first thing about evolution. How exactly was Jesus the most fit of all? In evolutionary theory he would have zero fitness, because he didn't have any children. And we are unfit? I have children, but I hope you don't. (Please see my GLOSSARY OF EVOLUTION if you are unsure what fitness is.) And fancy that arrogance, claiming to know the way their imaginary God thinks.

It would have been awfully nice if they had included the proof that Darwin was wrong.

6 comments:

Rule #1: If you are going to try to argue against something, or come up with an alternative, it might be a good idea to at least have SOME understanding of what you are trying to disprove.

You know, sometimes I just do not understand what some of these folks are doing. It would be nice if they all at least took an intro to biology or anthropology before heading out to the Galapagos to "prove" Darwin wrong.

More "Ray Comfort" kind of thinking at work. I don't get it. I just don't see what threat evolutionism holds for them. Frustrating. But this kind of stuff keeps cropping up, over and over.

Rule #1: If you are going to try to argue against something, or come up with an alternative, it might be a good idea to at least have SOME understanding of what you are trying to disprove.

I made that argument to a creationist of my acquaintance, saying that whether he accepted it or not, if he's going to critique evolution he should know enough about it to do so knowledgeably. His response? "I don't have to. I know what I believe."

I'd like to call your attention to a very important radio/Internet simulcast tomorrow night. It's called, "Deserting Darwin: The Galapagos Re-Discovered". Our special guest will be Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum. Both he and host Crane Durham will be discussing the significance of two anniversaries in 2009. One is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the other is the 150th anniversary of his work, "On the Origin of Species". Together these represent a decisive shift in thinking about human origins and the age of the Earth. As part of the broadcast you'll hear from Dr. John Morris of the Institute for Creation Research as well as experts in law and apologetics.

As a special bonus you'll be able to view the latest film from Vision Forum entitled, "The Mysterious Islands". In this beautiful documentary, Doug Phillips traces Darwin's voyage with a team of Christian scientists and investigators to ask a penetrating question - are these Islands a laboratory of evolution, or a testimony to God’s marvelous creation?

I hope you'll make plans to join us for this important two-hour webcast, "Deserting Darwin: The Galapagos Re-Discovered" tomorrow (Tuesday) night, December 8th beginning at 8:05 (EST).

Pleiotropy comes from the Greek πλείων pleion, meaning "more", and τρέπειν trepein, meaning "to turn, to convert". It designates the occurrence of a single gene affecting multiple traits, and is a hugely important concept in evolutionary biology.

I'm a postdoc at UC Santa Barbara.

All Many aspects of evolution interest me, but my research focus is currently on microbial evolution, adaptive radiation, speciation, fitness landscapes, epistasis, and the influence of genetic architecture on adaptation and speciation.